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conditions for the sectors concerned. As a consequence, the values
computed cannot be translated directly; the approach used calls for the
collection of empirical data specific to each country.
As a by-product, it has been shown that the relationship between price and
quality, generally speaking, is highly problematic. There is no correlation
between price and quality, and price cannot be used as a quality indicator.
More generally, the handling of quality aspects in public procurement would
seem to merit more interest from academic researchers. There is a wide
gap between what is known and what is actually used in practice, and some
methods in use are liable to lead to absurdities. On the other hand, it is
important that the analytic methods suggested are realistic in what they
assume to be known.
